A GOP Primary Loss Couldn’t Have Happened to a Nicer Guy: The Andy Ogles Story
INSIDE: Todd Blanche ... Jeanine Pirro ... Rand Paul
Good Riddance
It takes a lot to be among the most odious Republican members of this Congress. Let me reacquaint you with Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN).
What makes Ogles special is that he managed to be a virulent Islamophobe, Christian nationalist, and fabulist — really the trifecta of qualifications for current House GOPers — and still alienate his fellow Republicans.
Ogles went down to a stinging defeat in the GOP primary in Tennessee last night, losing 53%-47% to former state agriculture commish Charlie Hatcher.
While Ogles maintained an endorsement from President Trump, many state Republicans were done with him. Gov. Bill Lee (R) and former Gov. Bill Haslam (R) had endorsed Hatcher.
Ogles was a piece of work in so many ways.
“Muslims don’t belong in American society,” he tweeted in March.
“America and Islam are incompatible. Time for a muslim (sic) ban,” he posted in another tweet around the same time.
He posted AI-generated images of himself and senior Trump administration officials in front of the Capitol dressed as Crusaders.
He had campaign finance issues and resume-inflation issues.
Ogles’ nemesis back home was the relentless investigative reporter Phil Williams, of Nashville, who unearthed much of what we’ve come to know about Ogles and to whom I defer on cataloging Ogles’ sins:
Ogles had claimed to be an economist; he was not.
He had boasted about being trained in investigating international sex crimes; he had not.
He had claimed to have done graduate work at Vanderbilt and Dartmouth; that was a lie.
His resume showed he had served on the board of directors for the city of Franklin, Tennessee; Franklin does not have a board of directors.
He claimed to have personally loaned his campaign $320,000 in his first run for Congress in 2022; he did not have that kind of money to lend.
The FBI opened a criminal investigation into those fraudulent campaign disclosures, but that investigation was canned by the Trump administration.
In a fitting end to his losing campaign, Ogles banned Williams and select other news outlets from an Election Day event — and Williams got ahold of the blacklist.
What gives Ogles’ primary defeat a little extra boost of schadenfreude is that he was running in a pretty dramatically re-drawn district thanks to state Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting. Call it a small (but inadequate) consolation prize for the elimination of the state’s only majority-Black district in Memphis.
BREAKING … Court Halts Trump Ballroom
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals halted Trump’s vanity ballroom project in a ruling just out:
We are aware of no instance in American history in which a President unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for. Until now.
The ruling was 2-1, with Judges Patricia Millett (Obama) and Bradley Garcia (Biden) in the majority and Neomi Rao (Trump) in dissent.
Trump DOJ Watch
Blanche nomination: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced early this morning that she’s a “No” on Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general: “The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.” I want to very careful not to pump this up into a suspense-filled drama because the GOP conference is usually very strategic about parceling out the “No” votes to vulnerable or marginal members without jeopardizing the final vote — but Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is thought to be the only remaining holdout and the final vote Blanche needs to win confirmation. Late Update: Cassidy just announced his support for Blanche’s nomination on the Senate floor.
IRS immunity: A revised legal challenge to the unprecedentedly corrupt “settlement” of Trump’s IRS lawsuit — which is what’s nearly sunk the Blanche nomination — is now also targeting the gift of IRS immunity that Blanche gave Trump. The case in the Eastern District of Virginia spearheaded by the Democracy Forward Foundation had already succeeded in winning a preliminary injunction in June blocking the “anti-weaponization” slush fund. Yesterday, DFF filed an amended complaint seeking to block Blanche’s order granting Trump immunity from the IRS.
Reflecting Pool: The bogus vandalism case against former Olympian David Hearn was officially dismissed by the judge yesterday, but he punted on the question of whether the dismissal should be with or without prejudice until he receives additional briefing from the parties and holds a hearing. He also held off ruling on Hearn’s alternative request for access to the grand jury materials that could potentially make D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro squirm even more than she already is. Stay tuned on this one.
Headline of the Day
Politico: Hellbent on putting Fauci in jail, Rand Paul wants to skip a Senate vote
Paul Threatens Nom Over ICE Shootings
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is threatening to hold up the confirmation of Lance Schroyer to lead ICE unless he gets more information about the fatal ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Worth noting that Paul has multiple interests here. Schroyer, an Oklahoman who led the security detail of DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin when he was a senator, is Mullin’s pick for the job. Mullin is a well-known Paul nemesis.
Trump Orders New Leak Probe
Embarrassed by news reports of U.S. munitions shortages, President Trump has ordered another leak investigation, the WSJ reports. His previous reactive leak probes have immediately focused on journalists and pushed the bounds of the law and the First Amendment. Stay tuned …
Trump Avoids Giving Financial Info to BBC
A Trump-appointed federal judge in Miami granted the president’s emergency motion to delay having to turn over his financial information to the BBC in his defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster. To avoid implicating his own finances, Trump wants to amend his lawsuit, and the judge found it to be a “compelling argument” that the new lawsuit may moot the BBC’s need for the financial information.
New Lawless Birthright Citizenship EOs
Despite losing on birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court less than six weeks ago, President Trump rolled out two new executive orders that, taken together, run afoul of the high court’s recent decision.
U.S. Intel: Putin Could Provoke NATO
The steady drumbeat of warnings like this from Europe and from here at home continues, according the WSJ:
The U.S. had previously assessed that Putin wouldn’t provoke a North Atlantic Treaty Organization country while he is still fighting in Ukraine. But that assessment changed earlier this year, the U.S. officials said, as Putin is squeezed in Ukraine and under pressure at home to secure a victory.
If Putin is going to do this, I don’t see why the optimum timing for him would not be between now and the end of Trump’s term, when official U.S. resistance will be at its lowest ebb since NATO was formed — and that’s roughly the same period U.S. intel is most concerned about: “The time frame for any move by Russia is estimated to happen between this fall and 2029, according to the U.S. intelligence assessments.”
Help Us Wrap Up the Journo Fund Drive!
With a big final push, we can hit the $500,000 mark in our annual drive for the TPM Journalism Fund — and I won’t have to keep pitching you into next week. Let’s get ‘er done!
See Ya Monday
Before Elvis … before Willie … before the Pet Shop Boys … Gwen McCrae was the first to release “Always on My Mind“:
In case you missed it last week, I created a couple of Morning Memo playlists of the music I’ve shared: Spotify and Youtube.
News? Tips? Feedback? Please let me know. For sensitive information, use the encrypted methods here.
I admit “You Were Always On My Mind” is a great sounding song, but the lyrics really piss me off … just empty, meaningless excuses for being an Ahole.
Re: DCCA ruling on the "ballroom"—
"The ruling was 2-1, with Judges Patricia Millett (Obama) and Bradley Garcia (Biden) in the majority and Neomi Rao (Trump) in dissent.
Neomi Rao, going neck-to-neck down the home stretch vs James Ho (5th CA) as our next Scotus Justice nomination...the Federal Society's worst of the worst.